Posts tagged with arcade fire

08/12/2010

[album review] Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

If you had never heard a single album, song or musical note in your entire life, and then asked me to describe to you what it sounds like to listen to Arcade Fire, I would fail epically. For this reason or that, they produce a difficult style of music for me to convert into text, which may not bode well for the health of this review. Thankfully as music fans we can enjoy a band without having to justify what draws us to them. For me Arcade Fire resonates that audible magnetism and not since their debut album Funeral, has their appeal been so prevalent.

In their third studio album The Suburbs, AF sticks to a script they’re fairly familiar with. While each track displays a slight measure of uniqueness, the album progresses from song to song without significant distinction from one to the next. However whether you realize it or not while sorting through this 16 song coming of age soundtrack, Arcade Fire is sharing a story with you, and as the tracks progress so does the inevitable crescendo that peaks at the end with “The Suburbs (Continued)”.

While The Suburbs is certainly not as emotionally infused as Funeral, it is without a doubt less murky than Neon Bible, an album that I’d always viewed to have an agenda impossible to grasp. Come to think of it, Arcade Fire isn’t as
difficult to explain as I’d first thought. Their goal with each effort is to blow the lid off expectation and they do so with grandiose symphonic assaults, hypnotic vocal offerings and purposeful song writing. Personal highlights for me on The Suburbs include the title track, “Ready to Start”, “Rococo” and “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”. At the end of it all this album’s concept and effort absolutely hold water and if you get the chance to see Arcade Fire play their music in person, you better spend your lunch money on a ticket.

The Suburbs was released August 3, 2010 on Merge Records. It debuted at #1 on Billboards Top 200 selling over 156,000 copies in its first week.

Adam Montufar resides in Chicago and is a music enthusiast with specific interests in indie, urban and electronic genres. You can see more album reviews, comments and information about Adam at his personal site, The Record Crate Café, or follow him on Twitter.

Arcade Fire – Suburban War

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03/03/2010

the hood internet – decalogue

We all know that I love a nice mash-up as much as the next person. But it is rare that we hear a “concept mashup”, which is exactly what we’ve got ourselves today thanks to The Hood Internet. That is, each portion of the track is a mashup of two songs from each year of the past decade. Two songs from 2000, 2001, etc. See the full list of tracks by year below. I first heard this track last night thanks to James at Mediated Media and it was pretty much love at first site. I definitely smiled more than once when the song would break into the next year/mashup.

How many of these songs were you able to identify on your own?

2000 – Dr. Dre vs Radiohead
2001 – Missy Elliott vs Daft Punk
2002 – Ludacris vs The New Pornographers
2003 – Kelis vs The Rapture
2004 – Twista f/ Kanye West vs Arcade Fire
2005 – Three 6 Mafia vs Sufjan Stevens
2006 – T.I. vs Peter Bjorn and John
2007 – Rich Boy vs LCD Soundsystem
2008 – Lil Wayne vs Hot Chip
2009 – Jay Sean vs Phoenix

I think the strangest part for me is realizing that Idioteque is 10 years old. Holy Canoli!

The Hood Internet – Decalogue

PS. how awesome is this pic? I borrowed it from My Old Kentucky Blog and they are good.

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10/14/2009

the middle east – blood

the middle east

since i am an idiot who cant handle entering post dates, i am now left with an extra day to fill this week, but fortunately i heard an excellent song recently that seems perfect for a little wednesday action. the band is called the middle east and is one of two bands from australia that youll be hearing this week (the next comes on friday….get excited for that). i myself am a middle easterner, so i like this song a bit more just because of the band name (in addition to the song being excellent). this all reminds me of my sisters friend who back in high school wrote a faux love song about a fellow middle eastern girl. it was entitled, “im from the midwest, shes from the mid east”.

the song “blood” from “the recordings of the middle east” is sort of depressing and that comes across in the whole tone of the song. but its strange because theres something really happy sounding about it at the same time. i read that these guys actually started out as a sort of christian band, and there are some references to that if you take a look at the lyrics. i think the music in this song is really interesting and theres really a great buildup near the end that sounds like something that could be the ending of an arcade fire song. definitely make sure you give it a full listen.

the middle east – blood


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06/25/2009

climax week day 2 – arcade fire – my body is a cage

arcade fire live

so what did everyone think of day 1 of climax week with dailybeatz? was it as good as you thought it would be, or even better? i sure hope so. if it wasnt, just tell me what i can do to make it better next time. im watching an hour long recap of bonnaroo on the fuse channel right now. why did nobody tell me about the fuse channel before? i think its basically what mtv was before it became 24/7 reality television, but much better. looks like they show tons of live shows, interviews, and exclusive performances. i will probably watch it at least a few more times in my day.

todays track, while still climactic, is much more understated than yesterdays. its from everyones favorite canadian indie rockers arcade fire. im pretty sure that the butler brothers are not actually from canada, but now we are really getting down to the nitty gritty. one thing i like about arcade fire is that they utilize the medieval looking hurdy gurdy. i never knew what a hurdy gurdy was, but its this weird instrument that looked sort of like the body of a guitar with sort of accordian keys and a crank. i was kind of waiting for the jack in the box to pop out halfway through the song. not to mention the name of the instrument sounds like something a 5 year old made up. but no, thats the official name.

if youve never seen a hurdy gurdy, please see the above picture. whats even cooler than the hurdy gurdy is that todays post features a photograph taken by none other than myself from when karen and i saw them at judson church in nyc a few years back. we didnt think we would get tickets, but we did, so we went there just for that and were right up front. that shirt is blinding in photographs. on to the song. the original plan was “in the backseat”, the closing track from “funeral”. but then i remembered “my body is a cage”, which is way way way more of a climax. it, too, closes out an album, this time “neon bible”. i like this song quite a bit. especially “just because youve forgotten doesnt mean youre forgiven”. i thought the lyrics were “just because youre forgotten”, but i think they both express the same point. just sit back, relax and let me take care of the rest.

arcade fire – my body is a cage

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible - My Body Is a Cage buy this track on itunes
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06/22/2009

dirty projectors – stillness is the move

dirty projectors and bjork

my history with dirty projectors is a short one, but they seem to be turning up everywhere i look. first i heard their duet with david byrne – knotty pine – which is the opening track of the red hot compilation “dark was the night”, and i liked it quite a bit. then i read about their show in new york with bjork. i guess they wrote some original music for five voices and performed at housing works bookstore in new york city with bjork. the show was to benefit housing works, which according to their site works to end the twin crises of aids and homelessness. i wonder if bjork approached them or vice versa. either way, maybe the coolest thing ever. then i heard todays track and loved it. then i was walking to fill up my water at bonnaroo and was lucky enough to walk by their show and catch a few minutes of it. i never really searched out any of these things, so i feel like they are following me, but in a really good way.

then after all this happened, i remembered a video i stumbled upon many moons ago, long before id even heard of dirty projectors. it was on perhaps the coolest site ever for music fans – la blogotheque. this site does a bunch of what it calls “take-away shows”. basically, they pick all of your favorite musicians and film them performing in every day places. like arcade fire in an elevator. and yeasayer at some french apartment afterparty. warning: you may be compelled to watch every single video here, and i think there are about 100. dont say i didnt warn you, but you can thank me later if you havent already been fortunate enough to stumble upon this site. but sure enough i looked back and the crazy man and harmonizing three women that i remembered (although it turns out that the lineup changes up quite a bit) were in fact dirty projectors performing in, yes, some random mcdonalds.

so todays newish song is off their new album “bitte orca” and is rather funky if you ask me. one thing thats for sure is that these ladies can hit the high notes and really belt it out like its their job, which technically i guess it is. this jam, along with the other numerous appearances dirty projectors have made in my life recently (see above) have definitely peaked my curiosity in this group. does anyone have any other recommendations about where to start in their catalogue? something tells me that the sounds of “stillness is the move” are not really their usual sounds and that they are pretty versatile. i only wish i had stayed to catch the rest of their set last week.

UPDATE!!!! its happened yet again. apparently on tuesday, just one day after my post, the band was in a pretty bad car accident, just outside of detroit, aka where i live. fortunately everyone is OK and they are home resting now.

dirty projectors – stillness is the move

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca - Stillness Is the Move buy this track on itunes
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